Since launching her campaign in July, Vice President Kamala Harris has received eye popping donations collected through identity-based organizing calls, including ones put on by groups like Win With Black Women and White Dudes for Harris. Now, another group is organizing its own call in hopes to court a trickier demographic for Democrats: evangelicals.
Evangelicals for Harris, formerly known as Evangelicals for Biden, is attempting to appeal to a Christian demographic that reliably backs former President Donald Trump. The group is holding a Zoom call Wednesday evening as well as launching an anti-Trump ad blitz in swing states.
While the slew of other identity-based calls in support of Harris have been fundraising focused − including a call put on by white women for Harris that raised millions − Wednesday evening's call, titled “A Zoom Call for All Christians and People of Good Will,” will focus on signing up attendees for community service, according to the website.
“Our ask on this Zoom will be for everyone join in community service – a Matthew 25 witness of love of neighbor as our response to the unifying vision of the Harris-Walz ticket. That is what we want Evangelicals for Harris to be known for first,” the group's website states.
The group, created by Faith Voters, points to Harris' record on infrastructure, healthcare and climate change compared to Trump's, as well as her “faith story” as a Baptist, as reasons for why it's throwing support behind her.
An ad released by Evangelicals for Harris Wednesday features a 2015 interview between Trump and Republican pollster Frank Luntz during a family leadership summit. In the interview, Luntz asks Trump whether he has ever “asked God for forgiveness” and Trump replied “I’m not sure I have.”
Where does the Evangelical vote fall?
Though some evangelicals are organizing around Harris, winning over the demographic's vote is a tough sell for Democrats.
Over 80% of white Evangelical voters backed Trump, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April. During recent presidential elections, Republican candidates have overwhelmingly secured the evangelical vote.
Since he ran in 2016, Trump has become a spiritual figurehead among members of his base, including Christian nationalists, or those that believe that the Founding Fathers intended for America to be a Christian nation.
Religious rhetoric used by the Republican party was reinvigorated by Trump's assassination attempt in July during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Its use was also prominent at last month's Republican National Convention where prayers were led by the Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee and Trump's “God Bless the USA” Bibles were sold.
